Welcome to Tokyosaurus, so what's up in Japan?
There's been a bunch of pokemon theories floating around lately and this one was particularly
interesting so I thought why not bring it to attention to you guys.
Rivalry in Pokemon games were always straight cut, obvious and frankly, sometimes a little
childish.
There's always this one character, that's a childhood friend who start off the same
adventure as you, picks the starter that's good against you, and always asks you to battle
right before you could enter a pokemon center with all your pokemon close to 0 HP.
Okay, maybe not all the time, but it's happened at least once.
But this "rival" character is definitely a consistent part of the pokemon formula, similar
to trainer classes such as preschooler, gentleman, hiker, youngster, etc.
In the more recent pokemon games, instead of focusing on one rival, they gave you a
few.
Like in XY for example, there was Calem or Serena as the main rivals with 3 additional
other friends that would also start your pokemon journey with you and battle you along the
way to the pokemon league.
But it seems like in sun and moon, they reverted back to one rival as it starts out with just
you and Hacu.
Now here's where the theory comes in.
Hau is not actually the true pokemon "Rival" in this game.
And neither is Gladion because Gladion didn't start out the adventure with you.
Although Gladion would fit the word rival in the literal sense, he does not fit the
pokemon class of rival that existed throughout every core pokemon game that has ever come
out.
So WHO IS the rival?
It's actually....you.
You're the rival.
And here's why.
First of all, the rival always picks the counter type starter.
Usually the rival's starter pokemon type is always strong against the main character's
starter pokemon type.
This time around, if you picked grass type, Hau would pick water, if you picked fire type,
hau would pick grass type.
That's not what a Rival would do.
Second of all, Hau has a Pikachu.
Which is a pokemon that players associate with main characters.
Red has a pikachu, ash has a pikachu, main characters use pikachu.
Rivals are usually one step ahead of the main character, such as in red and blue, blue always
finished battling gyms or elite 4 before red.
You even had to challenge Blue in the pokemon league as he became champion before you did.
In sun and moon, you're always one step ahead of Hau, finishing trials and battles before
he does, even finishing the pokemon league first.
This time, you become champion before he did and he's the challenger which puts YOU in
blue's shoes.
He is the first challenger for you when you reenter the pokemon league to defend your
championship.
Why is Hau such a nice guy anyways.
He comes up to you and gives you items.
Makes you laugh.
Fights evil organizations with you.
He doesn't feel competitive or rivally at all.
And spoiler alert for those of you who didn't finish the game yet.
Kukui is the one who has the starter that is strong against your starter type.
So maybe this time around, they didn't want a single character to hold the rival class
or that they wanted to get rid of the class completely from the game.
Seeing how XY already started that trend with a group of friends that sort of travelled
together with you and battled for the purpose of growth rather than trying to one up each
other in a competitive way.
And last but not least, where's Hau's dad?
Just like most of the protoganists in pokemon, his dad is also MIA and never seen.
When have you ever seen your dad in a pokemon game except for maybe Ruby sapphire emerald,
but that one doesn't really count since he was a gym leader, so he had no family time
anyways.
Hau also mentioned that his dad travelled to Kanto a while ago and his grandpa's pokemon
are fighting type...COULD IT BE THAT HIS DAD IS...BRUNO?!
Ok these are getting a bit far fetched.
Anyways, enough theorizing for a day.
Let us know what you think of this theory on rivals in the comments below.
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Thanks for watching, and i'll see you next time.